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Fulfill All Righteousness

Fulfill All Righteousness

Righteousness

We, as Children of God, must Fulfill All Righteousness in Christ Jesus. We first, however, need to understand how. I have endeavoured to lay it out briefly below, but we all need a spiritual revelation, not simply intellectual understanding. So read this, brothers and sisters, read it carefully, but don’t take my word for anything. I can make mistakes too. Pray over it, compare it with scriptures, and wait for the Lord to reveal it to you personally. I assure you that what I have outlined below is the absolute truth, line upon line, precept upon precept, word upon word, but you need to let the Lord assure you through a Holy Spirit Revelation. Once He opens His Word to you, then nobody can take it away from you, or sway you into any compromise ever again.

Matthew 3: 13Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. 14But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? 15 And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.

Jesus was perfect. He was standing there before his prophet as Jehovah God in human flesh. Yet he came to the man that he created and asked to be baptized of him. To the prophet this did not make any sense. What purpose could it possibly serve for creation to baptize the creator. The creator I say? Yes.

John 1:In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2The same was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. 6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. 8He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. 9That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. 10He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. 11He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 12But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

In the Lord Jesus Christ dwelled the fullness of the godhead bodily. Here was Jehovah God in flesh, demanding that a mere mortal sinner baptize him. When John, totally confused by this situation, asked why, Jesus said it was to “fulfill all righteousness”. That is a great answer, but what does that mean?

How does it fulfill all righteousness?

We need to take a step back. Everything that is created in the physical world is a replica of a spiritual counterpart. That idea is new to many people. But if you search the scriptures you will find that it is the absolute truth. In fact the Bible itself is actually the complete testimony of Jesus Christ; it is God in print.

Jesus told us that. But again that idea needs to be expanded upon. Let’s take an example from the Bible.

Joseph was a prophet, a very spiritual man. The Lord gave him dreams. He was loved of his father above all his brothers. His father loved him so much that he made him a special coat, a coat of many colours. His brothers were very jealous of him. They sold him out into slavery, to the Egyptians.

Jesus too was a prophet, a spiritual man, loved of the Lord above all. He was given a sign of the dove that he was the blessed one. Judas sold him out to the Romans.

Joseph ended up in prison, Jesus after his crucifixion went into hell. With Joseph were a baker and a butler. One man was saved and one man was lost. Jesus was on the cross with two thieves, one was saved and one was lost.

Joseph came out of prison to sit at the right hand of Pharaoh. No man come come to Pharaoh but through Joseph. Jesus sits at the right hand of God and no man can come to God but through the Lord Jesus Christ. When Joseph went into the city, a trumpet was blown and every knee had to bow to him. When Jesus returns at the last trump, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Joseph took a gentile bride. Jesus has done the same. That Bride is the born again, spirit filled church. There was a remnant born to Israel after Joseph’s departure, Benjamin. Before Joseph revealed himself to his brothers, to the remnant, he first sent his gentile bride out. Before Jesus returns to Israel, to the 144,000 with Moses and Elijah, he will rapture his gentile bride home.

Joseph is a perfect type of Jesus Christ. His life, unknown to him at the time, was arranged by the Lord so that every step would reveal the Lord Jesus Christ. You can see Christ in every other scripture, in every other prophet. Ruth for example, is not just a random story of some woman, it is the entire plan of salvation for all mankind demonstrated through Boaz, the Kinsmen Redeemer of Ruth.

So then where does the baptism fit in? Jesus Christ was the Lamb of God, slain before the foundation of the world, slain for the sin of man. He is our sacrifice. John, playing the role of the priest, had to wash the sacrifice before it could be presented. John fulfilled all righteousness, he fulfilled the righteousness of God.

What does this mean for us today? In everything we do, in our churches, in our families, at our jobs, we must also fulfill all righteousness. We, as Christians, are the only Bibles many people will read. We, therefore, are also the living testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ to this generation.

We will all be held accountable for it! The Lord Jesus will judge us on it.

Have we fulfilled all righteousness? Have we in our lives fulfilled the Righteousness of God?

So now let us look again at some examples from the Bible. I mentioned that Jesus has taken a gentile bride. That is a strange thing to say isn’t it? But remember, as we saw earlier, every single thing physical in this universe is a type of something spiritual. Our marriages, the relationship between a man and his wife, and the children, are all a type of something far greater.

Jesus Christ the Lord is our Bridegroom. We the Church are the Bride. He is our head. He makes decisions for us. We the Church, do as he our Lord dictates. Now not to sound vulgar, but this is simple biology.

The Bridegroom puts his seed into the Bride, and she bares him children like unto himself. This is true in the physical and the spiritual. The children are the image of the Father.

Genesis 1: 11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. 12And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good……24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.25And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

Notice the seed is after “his” kind. You see, God is the creator. The earth is the incubator. God is preeminent and above all. He does not share his glory. So the physical type to show God, must perfectly represent him. Therefore the seed MUST be carried by the male, the bridegroom.

So then what is the seed of God? God’s seed is His Word, Logos. God’s Word is a seed that carries the life, the spirit, of God. We are the Church, the Bride. The Lord puts his seed, his Word, into the Church, and the Church incubates Christians that are in the likeness and image of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our earthly human families have been designed by the Lord God to be the very image and expression of the relationship between the Lord Jesus Christ and the Church Spiritual.

This is why there are many things in the Bible that don’t make logical sense to many people. They are thinking carnally, and not spiritually. They are not looking at things through the lens of the Revealed Word of God for the Hour. Now does this scripture make more sense?

Ephesians 5: 22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. 24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.

It has nothing to do with ability, or intelligence, or skills, or education, or anything else carnal. It is all simply to Fulfill All Righteousness. A woman that is filled with the Holy Spirit will rejoice to submit herself to her husband, as John rejoiced to baptize the Lord Jesus Christ. In so doing, she is not simply obeying the scripture, she is fulfilling all righteousness and being the same kind of testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ that the prophet Joseph was, and will receive equal reward.

Similarly on that note:

1 Timothy 2: 11 Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. 12But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. 13For Adam was first formed, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.

Are there women that are smarter than men, smarter than their male preachers? Absolutely, many of them. Are there women who are better public speakers? Of course there are. Are there women who have memorized scriptures better? Yes. Does the Lord God permit any of them to preach? No. Why? We just went over that. Men are the type of Christ in the relationship. Women are the type of the Church.

The seed is with the man!

Every seed after HIS kind. The seed is from the Lord. The Church lives by the Word of the Lord, not the other way around. And the Church cannot impregnate itself in the spiritual any more than a female can in the natural. The Lord, the Bridegroom sends his Word, his Seed, into the Church, and the Church incubates that Seed, that Word, producing children of God. Since the Seed comes from the male, the preaching comes from the male. It is the perfect type.

Once again, with a little revelation, any spirit filled born again Christian woman reading this will rejoice. She will realize that her submission has nothing to do with being a lesser person, but rather with identifying herself in the Word of God and fulfilling all righteousness. Sisters in Christ, never put yourselves down or allow anyone else to put you down for standing firmly in your place in Christ Jesus. Your reward is with HIM, and he shall reward you openly to the shame of the whole world.

And any ladies out there who are preaching, please, please pray over this and line yourself up with the word so that you too can fulfill all righteousness, identify Christ to the world, and receive the manifold blessings of being a living testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now let me take a moment here to also relay that not all men are called to preach. In fact very few are. There are so few called to the ministry that the Lord told us to pray for workers.

Matthew 9: 37 Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few. 38Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.

You might be inclined to say “few? there is a televangelist on every TV station and a church on every corner”. Yes there indeed are. But how many of them have the commission of the Lord? Very, very few. That is what the Lord Jesus said. So men, before you get behind the pulpit, ask yourself why you are there. If you want to be there, then you should not be there. If it burns inside you and you have to do it even though you would prefer not too, then maybe you are called for it. If you have not had a supernatural event that led you there, stop and wait for one.

So now back to the idea of fulfilling all righteousness. Preaching only when you are called is one way. Preaching strict on the word is part of that.

But it is our lives that make the difference.

How do we know somebody is a Christian? Is it that they smile a lot? Do they carry crosses or pack Bibles everywhere?

Matthew 7: 20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

That is pretty simple. So what are the fruits?

Galatians 5: 19Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. 22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. 24 And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

Which fruits do you bear? Both types are listed here. I guarantee you that every single human being on this ball we call Earth displays one or the other. We are either bearing the fruit of the flesh, or the Spirit. And we can only bear the fruit of the Spirit IF the Spirit of God dwells in us. If we had the spirit of Mozart we would write beautiful music. If we had the spirit of Einstein we would be master physicists. If we have the Spirit of Jesus Christ then we will fulfill all righteousness.

So long as we are in the flesh we are not fulfilling any righteousness.

Romans 8: 3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 4That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 5For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. 8So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. 9But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

That is a big chunk of meat, but the truth. The “righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit”. If you are walking after the Spirit, led by the Holy Spirit of God, then you are fulfilling all righteousness. You are not producing it, you simply bear it. A sheep does not produce wool. It does not get up every morning and measure its wool and make a plan to get more. It does not even think of it. The sheep simply lives its life, eats grass, drinks water, takes a nap. And without a thought of it, the sheep bears the wool.

A Christian does not produce the fruit. A Christian does not think about how he or she should behave or react. A Christian simply lives the life of Jesus Christ and the fruits of the Holy Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ are born naturally, and in many cases supernaturally, in their lives.

Those who have to plan and calculate “what a Christian would do” are Pharisees. These are the true legalists. They are disciplined. They are controlled. They are artificial, wolves in sheep skins. They live double lives. Outwardly they are sweet like sugar, but inwardly bitter and hateful. They will hold a grudge forever. They will destroy all those who are in their way. They will fleece the true sheep for every dime they can. The Bible speaks amply of these types.

But we are not concerned with them, we are concerned with the Children of the Living God. We are concerned with Fulfilling All Righteousness. We are concerned to do that which the Bridegroom commands of us, that we may, as Joseph of old, be a living testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ to our generation. We are concerned to edify the mystical body of Jesus Christ. We are concerned to be pleasing unto him.